[Cin] Cinelerra context help - a complete implementation

[Phyllis Smith]

Fantastic !! Easy to check this out on newer distros with AppImage (so all
you have to do is a download, chmod +x, and run).

There is an AppImage for users to test for newer distros (I will create one
for older distros tomorrow after I fix my mistake first).  It is at:
   https://cinelerra-gg.org/download/images/cin_for_newer_distros.AppImage

It is great fun to test -- please report if you find any problems as I have
found none so far.

On Fri, May 7, 2021 at 9:34 AM Georgy Salnikov via Cin <
cin at lists.cinelerra-gg.org> wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> This new implementation of Cinelerra context help can be requested from
> almost any Cinelerra window or subwindow by pointing with the mouse cursor
> on the GUI element of interest and pressing Alt/h. That HTML manual page
> will be shown via the configured web browser, which is assumed as most
> relevant to the GUI element being currently under the mouse pointer. For
> more information see issue 568 on the bugtracker:
> https://www.cinelerra-gg.org/bugtracker/view.php?id=568
>
> How to install, configure and demonstrate the new functionality
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 1. Apply the patch (see BT568) to the CinGG source tree:
>
> https://www.cinelerra-gg.org/bugtracker/file_download.php?file_id=775&type=bug
>
> 2. After patching one new file appears: doc/ContextManual.pl. This is a
> perl
> script. It must be given exetutable permissions.
>
> 3. Build and install CinGG as usual.
>
> 4. The prerequisite for context help is CinelerraGG HTML manual. After
> installation of CinGG itself, place the complete unchanged directory
> CinelerraGG_Manual, as it was produced by latex2html from the manual
> package, into the 'doc' directory of the installed Cinelerra package. This
> will be the directory bin/doc/CinelerraGG_Manual if CinGG was built
> --with-single-user. The script ContextManual.pl should appear after
> installation also here, in bin/doc.
>
> 5. In principle, this is sufficient. Nevertheless, the
> bin/doc/ContextManual.pl script can be configured further. Look in the
> script text. You can define your preferable web browser, or redefine it to
> 'echo' for debug purposes. There are also some predefined HTML pages for
> Contents and Index, and several explicitly rewritten keyphrases. However,
> there can be hardly a need to redefine anything except the name of the
> browser executable.
>
> 6. Start Cinelerra and open a project with some assets, effects, keyframes,
> etc. May be, open some additional Cinelerra dialog windows, plugin
> settings,
> etc. Try to point with the mouse on different GUI elements or on empty
> spaces in different windows and press Alt/h. You should get different
> manual
> pages in the browser (if browser was not yet started, it should start
> automatically).
>
> How it works, from the user's point of view
> -------------------------------------------
>
> The hotkey to request context help is Alt/h. Why? A simple 'h' does not
> fit:
> in text fields it has to input the letter 'h'. So is Shift/h: it would mean
> the capital letter 'H'. Ctrl/h and Ctrl/Shift/h are also not suitable: it
> is
> <Backspace>. Something like <F1> would be also not good, <Fn> are already
> utilized in Compositor. Unlike these all, Alt/h seems to be a good hotkey
> and, to the best of my knowledge, it is not assigned to anything else
> throughout the whole Cinelerra code.
>
> What particular help page is shown, depends on the mouse cursor location
> while Alt/h is pressed. Usually, when the mouse is located in some window
> or
> dialog, the help page related to the functionality of this window or dialog
> is shown. In this case the mouse can point either on some widget, or on an
> empty area in the window.
>
> In Cinelerra GUI there are several rich loaded windows, Timeline and
> Compositor for example. In such a case different help pages can be
> requested
> depending on the particular GUI element under the mouse. For example,
> pressing Alt/h while pointing on the Autos curve in a track would show help
> on automation keyframes, pointing on the Overlay mode button in the
> patchbay
> would show help on overlays, pointing on the camera control in Compositor
> would show help on camera and projector.
>
> If no context dependent help page is found, the manual page of Contents
> itself is shown. Most probably it means, that either the meaning of this
> window is obvious (so is the 'Tip of the day' window, for example), or it
> is
> not (yet) documented.
>
> Requesting context help for plugins
> -----------------------------------
>
> There are following possibilities to request help page for the particular
> plugin of interest.
>
> 1) Pressing Alt/h with mouse in the dialog window of plugin settings
>
> 2) Pressing Alt/h while pointing with the mouse on the plugin bar in a
> track
> (or transition bar, or transition icon)
>
> 3) Pressing Alt/h while pointing on the plugin name (icon) in the Resources
> window. If plugin tooltips are on, help for the highlighted (plugin under
> mouse) is shown. If plugin tooltips are off, help for the selected plugin
> is
> shown (it is made so, because in the latter case it would be difficult to
> figure out, without a visual feedback, which particular item is currently
> under mouse).
>
> 4) Pressing Alt/h while pointing on the plugin name in the Attach Effect
> dialog
>
> Requesting context help on Contour Shuttle
> ------------------------------------------
>
> Contour Shuttle has no Alt/h, yeh. Nevertheless, its help page can be
> requested by simultaneous pressing both Alt keys (left and right) on the
> keyboard followed by pressing any button on the Contour Shuttle. Here,
> pressing both Alt keys is necessary due to the way of X11 to track the
> status of modifiers. To cancel this mode, press any single modifier key
> (Alt, Ctrl or Shift) once.
>
>
> _______________________________________________________________________________
>
> Georgy Salnikov
> NMR Group
> Novosibirsk Institute of Organic Chemistry
> Lavrentjeva, 9, 630090 Novosibirsk, Russia
> Phone   +7-383-3307864
> Email   sge at nmr.nioch.nsc.ru
>
> _______________________________________________________________________________
>
> --
> Cin mailing list
> Cin at lists.cinelerra-gg.org
> https://lists.cinelerra-gg.org/mailman/listinfo/cin
>
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